Hopi phonology
Vowels There are 21 basic vowels in Hopi: : The vowel letter represents a sound that is similar to the vowel (as in English pet) but with rounded lips. This sound also occurs, among other languages, in French (d'''eu'x'') and German (sch'ö'n''). The vowel letter represents a sound that is similar the vowel of English ''boot, but without rounded lips and further forward in the mouth. Consonants Hopi dialects differ in their number of consonants. Below are two separate inventories of the Third Mesa and Mishongnovi dialects. The Third Mesa inventory has orthographic symbols and IPA transcriptions of those symbols when the IPA symbol differs from the orthographic symbol. As seen above, the Mishongnovi dialect has a larger number of consonants when compared with the Third Mesa dialect. The additional consonants are a series of preaspirated stops and a series of voiceless sonorants. There is idiolectal free variation with the voiced labial fricative represented with , which varies between labiodental and bilabial . Before a consonant (word-medially) and at the end of words, it is not voiced although its realization is dependent upon dialect; Third Mesa speakers have while Mishongnovi speakers have . The alveolar sibilants and are apical. In some Third Mesa speakers, they are palatalized to and , which can sound similar to and of English. In Mishongnovi, is palatalized when at the beginning of syllables and non-palatalized elsewhere. Hopi has a number of stop contrasts at the velar place of articulation that occur before the low vowel . Elsewhere, the contrasts are neutralized. The velar in environments of neutralization is called "neutral" k''. Before the front vowels and , it is palatalized with a fronted articulation and following palatal glide . Thus, and are and , respectively. Before the non-front vowels and , it is a typical velar: is and is . Before the front rounded vowel , it has a backed articulation: is . Before , there is a phonemic contrast with fronted velar with following palatal glide and the backed velar. Complicating this pattern are words borrowed from Spanish that have a velar followed by a low vowel. With the addition of these loanwords, a third velar contrast has been introduced into Hopi. Words with this borrowed velar are "neutral" and typically velar in articulation. Thus, there is a distinction between and in native words both of which are distinct from in loanwords. The precise phonetics of these ''k consonants is unclear due to vague descriptions in the literature. Suggests that the fronted articulation represented by is distinguished more by presence of the palatal glide than by the difference in the articulatory position of the dorsal contact. He also mentions that the backed sound represented by is "not-so-far-back". This suggests that this sound is post-velar and not quite uvular. Describes the fronted sound and the sound from Spanish loanwords as palatal while the backed ones are velar. Describes the fronted form as palatal with palatal glide before some vowels, The form from Spanish loanwords as "ordinary k", and the backed form as velar. Whorf's letter to Clyde Kluckhohn in describes the backed velar as being like Arabic or Nootka , which suggests a uvular articulation. Whorf's phonemicization of Mishongnovi posits the fronted version occurring before all vowels but (with a fronted allophone before , , and ); the backed form occurring before non-high vowels ( , , and ); and the form from Spanish loanwords before . Similarly to the velar stops, Hopi has a fronted dorsal nasal and a backed dorsal nasal represented as and , respectively. The fronted nasal is palatal . The backed nasal is described as velar in Third Mesa speech and thus forms a "neutral" series with "neutral" k. In Mishongnovi speech, Whorf describes the backed nasal as having the more rear articulation of the backed dorsal: . The retroflex sound represented with varies between a retroflex fricative ( ) and a flap , although the fricative realization is much more common. In Mishongnovi, this sound is only weakly fricative. In syllable coda position, it is devoiced to a voiceless fricative . The preaspirated stops and voiceless sonorants of Mishongnovi only occur in syllable coda position. However, they do contrast with plain stops and voiced sonorants in this position. Whorf notes that the preaspirated stops also contrast with a similar sequence of + stop. References External links * Category:Language phonologies